PHILADELPHIA — Against another short-handed team, the Timberwolves again came up big on the road.
Anthony Edwards scored 25 points, D’Angelo Russell had 19 and the Minnesota Timberwolves survived a late scare and won their third straight game, 112-109 over the undermanned Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.
“We took a lot of bad shots, I definitely did, but we got the win, though,” Edwards said of a 7-of-21 effort.
The 76ers have already played without James Harden for two weeks because of a right foot tendon strain and they added starting guard Tyrese Maxey to the injury list with a broken left foot suffered Friday. P.J. Tucker suffered an unspecified injury against the Timberwolves and Joel Embiid injured his left ankle/foot following a late-game collision with a teammate.
Embiid, the reigning NBA scoring champion, said well after the final buzzer he was still in pain and he hobbled off the dais following his press conference.
“Hopefully, somehow it feels better, but we’ll see,” Embiid said.
Maxey and Harden averaged 20-plus points on the season, and their losses left Embiid to carry the load among a lineup that in one stretch included him, Danuel House Jr., De’Anthony Melton, Shake Milton and Georges Niang.
“No one feels sorry for you. So I’m not going to feel sorry for us either,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We’ve got to find a way to win. I know that sounds nuts. But we just have to. And we’ll figure it out.”
The 76ers need more time.
Embiid had 32 points, nine rebounds and made 18 of 20 free throws. Milton had 27 points and Melton 19.
Without two top scorers, the Timberwolves pounced early on the Sixers and stretched a winning streak with all three wins on the road. They won at Cleveland, Orlando and moved to .500 at 8-8.
The Magic played without rookie Paolo Banchero and center Wendell Carter Jr., their two leading rebounders and two of their top three scorers. Cleveland played without injured All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen.
“We’re not in a position where we feel like we can afford any letdowns,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We’re just starting to play well ourselves.”
Embiid gave the Sixers a scare with 5:33 left in the game when he tripped over fallen teammate Georges Niang and crumbled to the court. Embiid rolled his left ankle and lay on his back as he was checked out by a trainer.
Embiid hobbled to the bench but stayed in the game. He limped the rest of the game and hit the court again — on a steal and then he followed with a 3 that pulled the Sixers to 105-102.
Edwards buried a 3 that stretched the lead to six.
Melton, though, hit a 3 with 30 seconds left that inched the Sixers within one but he missed a driving layup in traffic on the next possession that was their best last-gasp effort to complete a comeback from 20 points.
Niang airballed a desperation 3 at the horn.
“Sometimes the clock in your head goes faster than what you actually have,” he said
Minnesota led by 15 points in the fourth and was outscored 19-7 over the final 8:46 of the game.
“We were able to hold on, make enough shots, make a couple of big plays to win a game like that,” Finch said. “It shouldn’t have come down to that.”
TIP-INS
Timberwolves: Finch played at Franklin &Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was an NCAA Division III All-American in 1991 and 1992. He played the same time the 76ers used to hold training camp at the college. “Team of my youth but no longer,” Finch said.
76ers: Tobias Harris (sore left hip) sat out.
Jazz beat Blazers 118-113 to take Western Conference lead
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — -Jordan Clarkson scored 28 points, including eight straight in the final 1:48, in the Utah Jazz’s 118-113 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night.
Malik Beasley had 29 points off the bench to help Utah take the Western Conference lead at 12-6.
“We’re proud of the way we’ve represented ourselves after 18 games,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We believe we can get better. That’s our focus. Like every team, we’re not a finished product yet. That doesn’t mean we’re proud of where we are at this point, but we can’t get lost in what anybody is saying about us.”
Beasley was a force throughout the game, especially in the second quarter, where he scored 15 points.
“I think he’s understanding our system a little bit better,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said about Beasley, who made six 3-pointers.
“The timing with which he’s cutting, the timing of how he is coming off screens has been really good. And his teammates have been finding him at the right moments.”
The Jazz also scored 28 points off 18 Blazers turnovers.
“A lot of it is carelessness,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. “Some of it is other teams pressuring our passes and activity. Some of is unfamiliarity with each other. There’s a lot of thing put into that. But regardless of what the issue is we have to be better.”
Anfernee Simons led Portland with 23 points.
“We took too long to fight,” Billups said.
Both teams lost their starting point guards in the second half.
After colliding into a screen, Utah’s Mike Conley left with a left knee injury with 10:22 left in the third quarter.
Not long after Conley exited, Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard went to the locker room and did not return because of tightness in his right calf. Lillard has missed five games so far this season with the calf strain.
“The last time was worse,” Lillard said of his current calf issue. “When I first strained it, I knew right away. The reason I took myself out is so hopefully this time we can get ahead of it instead of me staying out there and putting myself in a worse position.”
Clippers hit 21 3-pointers in 119-97 rout of Spurs
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul George scored 21 points, hitting five of the Clippers’ season-high 21 3-pointers, and Los Angeles routed the slumping San Antonio Spurs 119-97 on Saturday night.
Norman Powell added a season-high 26 points off the bench and Reggie Jackson had 20 points as six Clippers scored in double figures. Powell hit five 3s and Jackson sank all four of his 3-point attempts.
“Today was the best game we’ve played all season. This is the blueprint of how we need to play,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “It was a fun game to play and a fun game to watch.”
George tweaked his calf and left after playing 15 minutes. “He’s doing OK,” Lue said.
Kawhi Leonard had 11 points in 22 minutes of his second straight start after missing 12 games because of right knee stiffness.
John Wall had 15 assists, becoming the first Clippers player since Chris Paul in 2017 to have at least that many.
“I was trying to get 20, to be honest,” Wall said. “My whole career I like to pass the ball.”
Wall is coming off the bench in his first season with the Clippers and feeling no pressure to score big numbers on a team with so many offensive weapons.
“This is probably the deepest team any of us have played on,” he said. “We shouldn’t worry about who’s the leading scorer, just play the right way.”
Since starting the season 5-2, the Spurs have lost nine of 10 and four in a row. They were led by Jakob Poeltl wi
th 20 points. Doug McDermott added 13 points and Tre Jones had 10 assists.